By Brendan Rees
Casey Council has ticked off a massive $3.5 billion in its rail and road project wish list – in one of the most successful local government advocacy campaigns in Victorian history.
In the lead up to the state election, council launched its ‘Commit to Casey’ campaign calling on the State Government and the Opposition to fix Casey’s roads and limited public transport options.
City of Casey Mayor Amanda Stapledon said more than $2 billion worth of infrastructure commitments had been made since the campaign launched in January.
This includes $1 billion earmarked for railway and intersection upgrades.
“It shows what local councils’ can do when they harness the power of their communities and send a strong message to Spring Street and Canberra,” she said.
One of the biggest ticket items was the Liberals promise to provide $487 million in extending the Cranbourne line to Clyde.
The State Government also pledged to deliver a $750 million upgrade of the Cranbourne line and planning for a new rail link to Clyde.
The Victorian Greens unveiled their plan to extend the Cranbourne rail line to Clyde as well as duplicating the Cranbourne line, if they win the state election
Some of Casey’s worst road choke-points will also be fixed with Labor committed to delivering extra lanes in each direction on the Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road, between Thompsons Road and South Gippsland Highway to reduce congestion.
Cr Stapledon said all councillors could take pride in this achievement but the real credit went to the community who got behind ‘Commit to Casey’ and sent a “real wake up call” to both sides of politics to fix the roads and extend Cranbourne rail.
“In the end I think we were taken very seriously about the things we were asking for because they are fair and reasonable for our community.”
